The long way home....

David Travel Blog

Now it was time for me to start the long way back to where I had come from 5 weeks earlier. My plans of an early start were crushed as I had to wait till nine to give back the bike. .

I didn’t cross the border to Panama until it was noon, and then turning the clock forward it was suddenly 1 P.M .

Yet another day wasted on busses….it was six in the evening, and almost dark, before I got to David In Panama. I was so tired (probably from only eating biscuits since 9 in the morning) that I just made my way through the centre and checked in to a hotel. The thought of sitting all night, another 7- 8 hours on a bus was just not good for morale amongst the troops(me). Ordinarily I would have probably just ignored the hunger and tiredness and just jumped on the first bus.

Bridge crossing at Sixaola border crossing to Panama

The problem here was that the bus schedules were just so incredibly stupid here. The last Panama city bus at 8 P.M, which would mean that I’d be wandering the streets of Panama city at 03.00 in the morning…..so I’d loose all sleep, and be in a major city without a place to stay in the middle of the night….no thanks..

David is the second largest city in Panama, and exceptionally uninteresting. In my experiences the second largest city of a country may at times be much more beautiful then the largest. A prime example of that would be Norway where the second largest city is so enormously vastly more beautiful then the largest city that I simply don’t even have enough adjectives in my vocabulary to describe the difference.

This was certainly not the case with David.

Bridge

I was in no mood for sightseeing after I had checked in to a hotel, but I was forced to do some in any case, as I wanted a decent restaurant for a decent meal.

The centre of the town seems to be mostly just a number of these kind of factory outlets with cheap clothes and shoes. There is a petite park with some half-decent fountains. In my quest for a restaurant I ended up failing quite badly. The only thing I could find was these typical bufè-type diners, which is normally not a sign of high quality dining. I kept looking , but had to settle for a large 24-hour open restaurant, which looked like a place where truckers would go(probably is).

I obviously knew that a place that was open 24h could hardly have good food, decent restaurants have closing times….

Nice house in forrest..

but I was too hungry to care.

This is as much of a refuelling project as it could possible get. I was on a mission ; get something down to my stomach so the hunger would subside.

I ordered a lasagne, which was just as disgusting as it looked. It was presented within 3 minutes after ordering it, which is obviously not a good sign. It both looked and tasted as it had been made sometime last week, and re-heated for 3 minutes in a microwave. I ate it all in lack of anything else.

Then it took something like 4 beers and a pastry cake to get rid of the nasty aftertaste of the lasagne.

The hotel I had found was quite agreeable actually, as it should be for the price I paid. A little room with cable-TV and hot shower suited me fine.

I went to bed at nine, as I wanted a proper long night of sleep before getting up a 6 A.

Taxi in Panama

M to catch the first bus out of here.

Of course the night was totally wasted as I was kept awake by the Tv in the next room. The hotel was very large, and almost empty, but still they managed to place the only other person right next to me.

And even worse was his choice of programs….for the duration of the night I had to listen to high pitched moaning as my next door neighbour was a pervert who watched porn movies all night.

Who is crazy enough to spend a night just watching porn movies ? I would think that it would get a bit repetitive and monotonous, it`s not like there is any sort of plot, except for the first 2 minutes when the plumber arrives and says “hi , shall I check your plumbing (wink wink) “ .

The morning came, and I sleepwalked to the bus station and caught the first one to Panama city. After my time in Costa Rica and Nicaragua I had forgotten the concept of busses in Panama. The concept of trying to deep freeze the passengers by putting the A/C on -2 C. I was sitting in my t-shirt and kaki pants, not having brought my sweater….I was freezing for 8 hours, but somehow got used to it on the half- way. My unconfirmed theory is that all busses in Panama is also used for carrying fish and meat underneath the passenger area. Panamanians are masters of multi-tasking, so why not make an extra buck by putting passengers in a fridge. It`s not like they have a choice if all the busses do it !